Alien ladybirds!

The most common UK ladybird is the 7-spot. Harlequin ladybirds are an alien species. This means that they have come here from overseas. There are lots of different types of harlequins. Many of them have more spots than UK ladybirds but not all of them. The best way to tell the difference between a UK ladybird and a harlequin is to look at their legs. UK ladybirds usually have black legs and harlequin ladybirds have brown legs.

A red variety of Harlequin. They look similar to our native 7-spot ladybird but have more spots.

Three harlequin ladybirds in the Horniman Gardens. Look closely and you can see that one variety has black wing cases with red spots.